All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘France’

Heavy rains in the southwestern French town of Lourdes have caused massive flooding, closing down a Catholic holy site and killing at least one person. According to France 24, the flooding has closed down the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, a famous French pilgrimage site for Roman Catholics. The site is sacred to Catholics due to reported sightings of …

Twitter has lost its latest appeal in a racist tweet controversy that’s persisted for nearly 8 months. According to a French court, following French law is not optional for U.S.-based Twitter, and they will be compelled to turn over the identities of users deemed in violation of French anti-discrimination laws. It’s a long story, but here’s the quick version. Back …

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius this week confirmed that the nerve gas sarin has been used during the ongoing Syrian civil war. According to a Guardian report, both the British and French governments claim to have found evidence for sarin in urine and blood samples smuggled out of Syria by French journalists. Fabius stated that the French government has provided …

James Lipton is best known for hosting the TV show Inside the Actors Studio, in which he conducts serious interviews with big-name Hollywood actors and actresses. It turns out, however, that the 86-year-old Lipton has a much more interesting past that involves French bordellos. In an interview this week with Parade, Lipton confirmed that he was a pimp in Paris …

French soccer team Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) locked up its first Ligue 1 title in nearly 20 years this weekend, sending the team to the Champions League group stage and prompting celebration in Paris. Unfortunately, police and soccer fans did not get along during the celebration, and a riot in Paris has hurt fans and damaged property. According to a BBC …

A woman hiking in the Pyrenees mountains in France who fell to her death is igniting a debate over a protected species of vulture. According to an International Business Times report, a 52-year-old woman fell down a 300-meter cliff while walking with friends. Vultures immediately took to the body, reducing it to only clothes and bones in less than one …

Twitter is being sued in France for failing to disclose the identities of users wrapped up in an anti-Semitic hashtag controversy that has spanned five months. Here’s my attempt to make a long story short: Back in October of 2012, a hashtag emerged on Twitter that many users found exceedingly offensive. The hashtag, #unbonjuif, roughly translates to “a good jew.” …

Earlier this month, French privacy watchdog CNIL was pressing Google on privacy changes again, putting out a statement saying it was determined to act and pursue investigations. At the time, Google shared the following statement (via TechCrunch): “Our privacy policy respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services. We have engaged fully with the CNIL throughout …

French privacy watchdog CNIL is press Google on privacy changes again, several months after it called on the company to give users more control. As you may know, Google consolidated a slew of its various privacy policies last year into one core policy, which enables it to share data from one of its products to the next. TechCrucnh points to …

Earlier this month, Google announced an agreement with publishers in France, which involves Google creating a €60 million fund called the DIgital Publishing Innovation Fund to “help support transformative digital publishing initiatives for French readers.” The agreement came after a lengthy battle with publishers who wish to be paid for the privilege of search engines to link (with snippets) to …

It looks like Google is paying to link to French publishers’ content. Google and publishers in France have not been seeing eye to eye for quite some time. In October, the company spoke out about a proposal by French lawmakers, backed by publishers, which would seek for search engines to license content in order to have the privilege of linking …